As a “thank you”, 195 workers at the Belize City Council each received a land title on Thursday, February 1, 2018, some of them first time land owners. According to the outgoing mayor Darrel Bradley, the titles were given as an incentive to encourage efficiency and good work within the council employees. The lands, which totaled a 57-acre span and which is an area that was cleared and subdivided with this purpose, is located along mile 13 on the George Price Highway near Tropical Park.

The employees, in an effort to dissuade any claim of bias, each drew their lot number in a sort of lottery system. This initiative, according to Mayor Bradley, has been several years in the working. Every employee that has been with the council three years or more was entered into the lottery; since the lottery was drawn, the employees were given the opportunity to see the quality and integrity of the land. The Department of Works has been integral in ensuring that there is proper road access and the council has been working with the utility companies to ensure that the area is properly outfitted with the services.

While the lands were given to the employees to use as they see fit, the mayor encouraged them to invest in or hold on to the land. He urged them to look at the long term benefit of having a land, what it could bring about for themselves and their families. The lands were distributed above a political motive. The mayor’s intent was to develop a rapport as well as relationship between employee and council while strengthening development. “What I really underscored in my presentation is the idea of sustainable human development but part of that is to ensure that people who are the deliverers of government service are properly motivated. We talked about issues of training. We talked about the fact that over the course of the last six years we have had six salary increases. We’ve had our HR regulations. The staff has been unionized and so forth. And this land program is along that vein.”